Wednesday, May 04, 2005

We can't handle the truth!

I totally wish I could be a fly on the wall at the Lynndie England trial. Her creepy but honest-seeming former boyfriend is now saying things that directly contradict the 'frathouse fun' guilty plea she entered. I guess the higher-ups bear some culpability after all...
FORT HOOD, Texas - The reputed ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal on Wednesday contradicted a key part of Pfc. Lynndie England's guilty plea, in which the defendant said she knew she was committing wrongful acts when she took part in the mistreatment of Iraqi detainees.

The testimony of Pvt. Charles Graner Jr., contending that notorious photos taken of England at the prison were to have a legitimate use, could endanger England's guilty plea to seven abuse charges. Under military law, a judge can formally accept England's guilty plea only if she knew at the time that what she was doing was illegal.

...Graner maintains that he and the other Abu Ghraib guards were following orders from higher-ranking interrogators when they abused the detainees.
Any moment now you expect Jack Nicholson to delivery a fiery monologue with lots of heavy eyebrow-arching action. I get the feeling that poor, compliant Lynndie England is the opposite side of the same coin on which Jessica Lynch is cut.

Short, chubby, and butch, England will become the representation of everything that's wrong with the military, just like Lynch and her rescue became idealized into everything that's right. Too bad it seems she was just following orders, and if her guilty plea stands it will remove blame from the people on which it should truly fall.

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